It is a path that most have taken. However, life teaches us in many ways that the great things of life cannot be accomplished by taking the path of least resistance.
Illus: You can ask any:
• Skilled athlete
• Skilled surgeon
• Skilled craftsman
• Skilled musician
And every one of them will tell you they did not reach the level of excellence they reached by taking the path of least resistance.
Also, this is a lesson that every good mother has learned.
Motherhood is being played down by some. Why?
• Because the devil knows that half of everything an individual learns, they learn in the first four years of their life
• 85% of born again believers accepted the Lord between the ages of five and ten
But while Motherhood is being playing down by the modern woman’s lib movement, there are still godly mothers in this country that recognize that the job of Motherhood is one of, if not, THE most important jobs in the world.
Someone said:
They say that man is mighty
He governs land and sea;
He wields a mighty scepter
On lower powers than he.
But a mightier power that is stronger
than Man has arisen,
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is that hand that rules the world.
Today is Mother's Day. We come to honor the mothers and grandmothers among us.
Illus: When Napolean was asked what the greatest need in France was, he responded emphatically with one word, "Mothers!"
We recognize the awesome task they have in being the mothers of our families. It is not an easy assignment that they have been given.
Illus: Someone described the NORMAL LIFE OF A MOTHER:
• She cooked the breakfast first of all
• Washed the cups and plates afterwards
• Dressed the children and made sure all the socks were mates
• Combed their heads and made their beds
• Sent them out to play
• Gathered up their motley toys
• Put some books away
• Dusted chairs and mopped the stairs
• Ironed an hour or two
• Baked a jar of cookies and a pie
• Then made a stew
• The telephone rang through out the day
• The doorbell did the same
• A youngster fell and stubbed his toe
• And then the laundry came
• She picked up the dirty clothes that the children scattered around
And when her husband came at six, He said: "I envy you! It must be nice to sit at home without a thing to do!"
But while we may joke about how easy her job is, we know that the mother’s job is one of the most difficult jobs in the world when it is done properly. This is why we have many in the woman’s lib movement running from motherhood as fast as they can run, because they are not willing to make the ultimate sacrifice that good mothers have to make.
INSTEAD, THEY TAKE THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE!
The apostle Paul was convinced that anything worth doing required a COMMITMENT TO HARD WORK! For example, in his letter to the Thessalonians, he does SOMETHING UNUSUAL. In verses 7 to 9, the Apostle Paul shares about his hard work.
We read in these verses, “But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.”
Notice, Paul says in verse 8 that they shared with them, "Not the gospel of God only, but also our own SOULS..." That is, he literally gave his life to serving the Lord.
He describes it as hard work, and as involving TWO things:
I. THE GENTLE CARE OF A MOTHER
Look at verse 7, it says, "But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:." Notice, when Paul thinks of his hard work in the ministry where he had given his life, HE THINKS OF THE HARD WORK OF A MOTHER nursing her children.
Paul could have compared his hard work to:
• The hard work of a FARMER
• The hard work of a SOLDIER
• The hard work of an ATHLETE
But instead he compares it to, a mother caring for her little children.
But notice, she is not like some of us hard working men who are like a bull in a china shop. Paul says she is GENTLE.
A mother cares for her little children with gentleness.
• She recognizes that the life of a child is a gift from God, and she treats her children like priceless vessels that have been placed in her hand.
• She recognizes that from the seed placed within her, her own body has produced this child.
• She recognizes that anyone who brings a child into the world is called on to be a good steward of the child, a good caretaker of the child.
HOW DOES SHE NURTURE HER CHILDREN?
There have been many articles about the various challenges of nurture. Let’s look briefly at three of them.
(1) THE FIRST ARTICLE HAS TO DO WITH TALK
One article reported on a study which stresses the importance of the first year of a child's life. This report stressed the importance of looking a child in the face and talking to them.
• It has been discovered that talking has a huge impact on brain development.
• Intelligence, school success, and social competence are all influenced by talking.
There is one catch. The child’s talking experiences must come from "an attentive, engaged human being." A television set, a radio, or a CD player will not work.
Infants learn very early in life:
• Which voices they can trust
• Which voices they can associate with care and nurture
It is the words from those voices which have such a creative and nurturing impact on the brain development of infants.
(2) THE SECOND ARTICLE HAS TO DO WITH TIME
A cover story in Newsweek magazine questions the whole notion of "quality time” that we hear so much about today.
The idea of "quality time," is that busy parents and single parents do not have much time to spend with their children, and they try to compensate by what they refer to as spending "quality time" with their children, time when they really pay attention to their children. The article suggests "quality time" is something of a myth. What is needed in the raising of a child is A LOT OF TIME.
Since large amounts of time are needed in the nurture of a child, it is obvious there are particularly difficult challenges for single parents and for families in which both parents work.
It is important to find other people who can share in the giving of time and the giving of nurture. Such as,
• A grandparent
• Sunday School teacher
• A good neighbor
It takes a lot of time to raise a child.
(3) THE THIRD ARTICLE HAS TO DO WITH PRESSURES
This article deals with the pressures of life. Many parents, out of ignorance, add to the pressures of a child’s life.
• Some pressure their children to excel in sports
• Some pressure their children to excel in popularity
• Some pressure their children to excel in academics
Illus: There is the essay written by a 16 year old named Elizabeth Shaw that talks about those pressures.
• There is pressure to do well in school so she can get into a good college, so she can get a good job, so she can have a good life.
• There is pressure about how she is going to be able to afford such an education.
• She wonders if she gets into a good college, and if she gets a good job, and if she otherwise has a good life, what will she remember of her childhood.
• She knows she only has this one childhood. She wonders if what she is going through now is worth it, because she has essentially lost her childhood.
Children need to be NURTURED, not PRESSURED. Two things can be said, briefly, about nurture.
A. NURTURE IS LABOR INTENSIVE
Nurture requires personal interaction. Parents have to labor at making time to look the children in the eyes. IT’S IMPORTANT!
It is amazing how many parents today are on this busy merry-go-round, and they are so busy they literally do not have time to sit down and look their children in the face.
Illus: One mother who finally took time to look her young daughter in the face, said, “Honey, you have some freckles!” The little girl said, “Mom, if you had time to notice, you would have known I’ve had them for years!”
B. NURTURE IS REINFORCEMENT INTENSIVE
Good mothers know they have to labor at reinforcing things they have told their child a thousand times it seems. Nurture is reinforced by rituals. Good mothers know that rituals give newborns and older children a sense of security.
When they hear Mom say something is wrong today, and three weeks later they still say it is wrong, they soon discover a value system through this motherly nurture. They develop what we call CORE VALUES! Once they have them, these core values will be the values that will control them the rest of their lives.
We live in a society where many children have never been taught WHAT IS RIGHT and WHAT IS WRONG! When parents do not stand for anything, we should not wonder why the children do not stand for anything.
Children learn from parents who labor to reinforce what is RIGHT, over and over again!
Illus: One of the great children’s programs on television can be found on public television. It is called, "Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood." A study was done to see why children are so impressed with this program. This is what they discovered:
• Every day at the same time Mr. Rogers came through a door into his living room
• Children at home were facing him as he came through the door into the living room, as though the children were in the room with him
• Mr. Rogers would come through the door
• He would take off his jacket and hang it up
• He would take a cardigan sweater out of the closet and put it on (The same sweater is now in the Smithsonian Institution.)
• Then he would take off his shoes and put them away
• Then he would put on slippers
• Then he would greet the children again
Every day it was the same. It was a ritual. It was reliable. It was predictable. That is why children loved it.
Rituals reinforce absolutes that are necessary to every child. Nurture builds respect in several ways.
(1) NURTURE BUILDS SELF-RESPECT IN A CHILD
• If you are nurturing a child, the child feels respected and the respect the child feels because of your nurture helps to build the child's self-respect. A nurtured child is more likely to have self-respect for the rest of his life.
• A neglected child is usually a child which feels a lack of worth and self-respect. A neglected child may well struggle with a sense of low self-esteem for the rest of his life.
(2) NURTURE BUILDS RESPECT FOR THE CHILD IN THE PARENT
The parent must learn to respect the abilities of the child, and the gifts of the child. This can help the parent resist the temptation to measure a child's abilities by some standard, or by the examples set by other children the parent may admire and even envy.
Illus: One father told his child who was having a difficult time learning to read, “Son, when Abraham Lincoln was your age he was reading books from cover to cover”. The boy said, “But dad, when Abraham Lincoln was your age he was President of the United States!”
Notice the contrast that comes before verse 7, denoted by the conjunction "but". He said, “…we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.".
Gentle care is contrasted with, “being burdensome", which seems to say that a mother's gentle care is seen in her taking upon herself a lot of burden and responsibility.
For example, a little baby is unable to do very much on his own, because he is unable to take care of himself. So the mother takes the responsibility to take care of the baby in every way possible.
• The mother feeds the baby, many mothers nurse the baby
• The mother burps the baby
• The mother changes the diapers
• The mother helps the baby sleep
• The mother bathes the baby
• The mother is sensitive to hear and care for the baby's every need
The mother shows her love in every way by GENTLY TAKING CARE OF THE CHILD!
• As the baby grows in the womb, mom’s organs get scrunched up together to make room for the baby
• The mother manages her diet and eating habits in order to give good nutrients to the baby being formed in the womb
• The mother learns to sleep in new positions so that both mother and baby can be comfortable
• The mother walks around with stability in mind, sometimes even wobbling to keep her balance
• Then the baby is born and begins to grow, begins to coo, begins to talk, begins to crawl, and begins to walk. A mother is there every step of the way to show gentle care to her little child
Illus: When we consider the GENTLE LOVE OF A MOTHER, is it any wonder that these big ugly football players on national television look into the T. V. camera, and the first thing that comes to their mind is, “Hi Mom!”
When Paul thought about HARD WORK, he thought about mothers. We have looked at THE GENTLE LOVE of a mother, but let us also look at -
II. THE GENUINE LOVE
Look at verse 8, "So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us."
Love is the greatest motivation to do the hard work of mothering. Paul said " ye were dear unto us."
A mother knows that often she has to tell the child “no” when the child wants to be told “Yes”. But because she loves the child so dearly, she risks the child becoming angry at her, because love compels her to do what is best for the child. However, when that child goes to bed that night, that child has contentment from within because he knows he has a mother that is always going to do what is best for him.
Conclusion:
Look at verse 9 we read, " For ye remember, brethren, OUR LABOUR AND TRAVAIL: FOR LABOURING NIGHT AND DAY, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. "
A mother is the hardest worker in the family. Let's consider some ways we can appreciate our mothers. Some families have a tradition of taking mom out for Sunday brunch, but what is it that touches a mother's heart in a real way?
(1) WE HONOR THEM WITH OBEDIENCE
The Scriptures tells us to honor our father and mother, in the Ten Commandments, and in Ephesians chapter 6. Specifically, life goes better for us when we honor our parents. Ephesians tell us that this is the first command with a promise; the command to honor your parents is followed by a promise that life will go well and you may enjoy long life.
(2) WE SHOW OUR LOVE BY THE WAY WE ACT, NOT BY THE PRESENTS WE GIVE
Sometimes it is the intangible things that are most meaningful.
• For example, a son gives his parents peace of mind, when at 18 he promises not to buy the motorcycle he wants so much
• A teenager give his mother peace of mind because she warns him about hanging around bad company and he heeds her warning
• But the thing that touches a mother's heart the most, is your genuine faith and walk with God
Give your appreciation, and express your gratitude to the hardest worker in your home.
Illus: The Parable of Mothers:
The young mother set her foot on the path of life, "Is the way long", she asked? And her guide said, "Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning."
But the young mother was happy and she would not believe that anything could be better than these years. So she played with her children and gathered flowers for them along the way, and the sun shone on them, and life was good and the young mother cried, "Nothing will be lovelier than this."
Then night came, and the storm and the path was dark and the children shook with fear and cold, and the mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said, "Mother we are not afraid for you are near and no harm can come." And the mother said, "This is better than the brightest of day, for I have taught my children courage."
And the morning came and there was a hill ahead and the children climbed and grew weary and the mother was weary, but all the time she said to the children, "A little patience and we are there." So the children climbed and when they had reached the top, they said, "We could not have done it without you Mother." And the mother, when she lay down that night, looked up at the stars and said, "This day is better than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of difficulty. Yesterday I gave them courage. Today I have given them strength."
And the next day came strange clouds, which darkened the earth - clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children grouped and stumbled, and the mother said, "Look up! Lift up your eyes to the Light!" And the children looked up and saw above the clouds an Everlasting Glory, and it guided them beyond the darkness. And that night the mother said, "This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God."
And the days went on, and the months and the years, and the mother grew old, and she was small and bent. But her children were strong and tall and walked with courage. And when the way was hard, they helped their mother; and when the way was rough they lifted her, for she was as light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill, and beyond the hill they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide.
And the mother said, "I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them."
And the children said, "You will always walk with us mother, even when you have gone through the gates."
And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gates closed after her. And they said, "We cannot see her, but she is with us. A mother like ours is more than a memory - she is a living presence."
--- Temple Bailey
